Sunday 20 November 2011 20.00 EST
First published on Sunday 20 November 2011 20.00 EST

The Chewa adage Osauka satopa ("a poor person never tires") is certainly true in the case of Priscilla Choma. The 23-year-old mother of three rises at dawn every day. After finishing the housework, it's off to her vegetable stall on the side of the busy highway between Kabwe and Lusaka.

"I leave the two older children with my mother and take the baby to my stall at the roadside. I'm there at 10am and stay until 6pm," says Choma, her daughter, Gift, sleeping soundly in her arms, oblivious to the traffic that whizzes by the makeshift wooden stall. She sells watermelons, tomatoes and peppers to passing motorists, but often struggles to turn a profit.

In Zambia, average annual income is about £920. Choma, whose husband has died, is forced to raise her entire family on less than a quarter of that sum. When money is tight they eat only one bowl of sheema, the maize porridge that is a southern African staple, a day. "Sometimes we'll go as long as a week without breakfast," she says.

Another roadside stallholder, Josephine Shiokola, 21, earns about £130 a year selling vegetables grown by her husband. "It's very difficult to make much money because fertiliser is very expensive," the mother of one explains.

Shiokola, who left school at 14, fears that she will never be able to finish her education. "I didn't pass the exams but couldn't repeat because I didn't have the money," she says. "I'd like to go back to school but we've no money to pay the fees."